Review on Hydrolytic Degradation Behavior of Biodegradable Polymers from Controlled Drug Delivery System

Biodegradable polymers are extensively used in medical device industry for the controlled delivery of pharmaceutical agent to the targeted region. Successful performance of any controlled drug delivery system (DDS) relies on the drug elution kinetics which further depends on the degradation behavior of the biodegradable polymers. Thus, fundamental understanding of the polymer degradation phenomena is the important aspect in the design and development of controlled drug delivery system. Polymer d egradation is the complex phenomena known to be affected by the various inter-related factors such as polymer physico-chemical properties, drug-polymer interaction, preparation technique, degradation environment, etc. This article intends to provide the overview of the degradation mechanisms of biodegradable polymers, factors influencing the degradation, advanced characterization techniques of polymer degradation, various modeling approach to study polymer degradation and influence of polymer degradation on biocompatibility.